Atlanta

“Dad combined porn with all manner of genre fiction. He wrote pirate porn, ghost porn, science-fiction porn, vampire porn, historical porn, time-travel porn, secret-agent porn, thriller porn, zombie porn and Atlantis porn.” A touching ode to the life of celebrated porn writer Andrew Offutt, or John Cleve, by his son Chris Offutt. [New York Times]

Philadelphia’s Nicola Midnight St. Claire has starting a “Dear Abby” column for artists. The first question is a unanimous one: the woes of 30 Under 30 lists and getting overlooked. We’re looking forward to more of these. [The St. Claire]

Harry Potter reenactors will be congregating from round the globe to a Polish castle, just purchased by a Harry Potter role-play company. The first event is in April. Get your tickets now. [Daily Mail]

A college art project has brought the city of Atlanta to a standstill on Monday, when police mistook a pinhole camera duct taped to a bridge for a bomb. [artnet News]

I found this through clickbait yesterday, but perhaps the most useful listicle of all: The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. I’ve been seriously reevaluating my lifestyle in the past 24 hours. [Guardian]

An uproar in London over the Natural History Museum’s plan to replace Dippy the dinosaur skeleton with a blue whale skeleton, in order to remind us to preserve and celebrate what we still have left. [Hyperallergic]

Last night at New Museum, the Showtime guys were on view as part of Gerard & Kelly’s residency project. For non-New Yorkers, “showtime” is a popular subway pole dance for money (our chief commissioner has been cracking down on them). Typically they are ignored. Fashionable art crowds was applauding. It was weird. [Twitter]

Art dealer and author Ed Winkleman speculates that the popularity of technical skill over concept has to do with our lack of time to invest in thinking. “In short, the demand seems to be that the artist do all the work, up front, which is only instantly demonstrable…” he writes. This is pretty evident if you’ve ever been to any art fair. [edwardwinkleman.com]

One of life’s great questions, explained: Is coconut oil just for rubbing on your titties, or is it truly a superfood? [Shannon’s Kitchen]

Walter Liedtke, who served as a curator in the European painting department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than 35 years, was amongst the five killed in the Metro-North crash yesterday. [The New York Times]

Atlanta residents sure are jittery. After a driver mistook a pinhole camera made from soda can for a bomb—it was duct taped to the 14th Street bridge over interstates 75 and 85—the police department deployed a bomb squad and shut down the highway. “I felt bad for the student, because this was his art project,” the man who called in the bomb told local NBC affiliate 11 Alive. “I hope he at least got an A.” [Hyperallergic]

The Broad Museum will open to the public on September 15, 2015, across the street from MOCA and . Funded by Eli and Edith Broad, and set to include works from their private collection. [The Broad]

Pay your taxes. New York officials have subpoenaed several galleries and collectors for failure to pay state income tax. The last time the government cracked down on unpaid taxes on high-end art was in 2002. Suspicions abound that the publicity of high-dollar works at auction helped spur the investigation. [The New York Times]

For reviews of little-known and out-of-print sci-fi paperbacks. [Hypercastle]

Artist Tania Bruguera tells the Miami New Times that Cuban officials have been spying on her personal calls. She continues to be detained on the island. [Miami New Times]

Add Scott McCloud’s The Sculptor to the very short list of graphic novels featuring an artist as the main character. From the sounds of it, the premise seems to be whether you’d give up your life for your art. Drama, drama, drama. [The Atlantic]

If you can manage all of the pop-up ads, check out these horoscopes for horses. Eh, or not. [Equine Whispers]

Did you beach too hard and forget to read this summer? Fear not, art lovers, for we bring you the second annual AFC Best of Summer list. We’ve brought together the blog’s greatest summer hits from staff and contributors, because, let’s face it, you might have missed out on days or weeks of AFC when you were traveling to Venice, Basel, or closer to home, the Rockaways. We’ve published some great artist essays with our STUFF series, started our “Diary of a Mad Gallery Owner” series, and continued to bring you reviews and opinion pieces. Enjoy.